Meow

We decided to go all out for our girls night. Normally we head to one of the college bars or a dive – hey cheap drinks are mandatory for the college student. Tonight though, we decided to go to one of the more upscale bars and somewhere with a new scene.

As soon as Chelsea came home from work we filled her in our plans. We ordered in pizza, and pre drank while we got ready. I must say we cleaned up well. Chelsea looked amazing in her wine coloured bandage dress with cut outs, Tara had on a light blue sleeveless form fitting dress with a deep vee mesh insert and I finally settled on a White Free People dress

 

It wasn’t something I would normally wear, but Tara’s comments about my body earlier left me feeling a little more confident than normal. I had had been eyeing this dress up for a while but couldn’t justify it. Luckily just last week there was some major mid season sale and I was able to grab it online before anyone else. Even though my stomach needed some sunshine, I was lucky enough that my legs were still pretty tanned. Hopefully the dark lights of the bar and shadows of the cut outs on the dress would hide my paleness. I decided to pair the dress with some aqua coloured pumps to add a burst of colour. Not sure about you but one sure way to boost my confidence is with brightly coloured pair of heels. I always seem to have a jump in my step when I wear any. Chelsea did my hair in loose waves and I have to admit I looked good.

Arriving at the bar though, that wave of uneasiness hit. It’s always weird to go out after being in a long term relationship. You forget that you are allowed to flirt. It almost feels like that first day of school or a new job, where you feel like you are outside looking in.

We quickly grabbed one of the only tables left and decided on drinks and placed our order. As we waited for our waitress to come back we did a bit of people watching and tried to figure out what guys were single. 

“Ohhh what about him!!”, Chelsea squealed. We turned in the direction she was referring to and noticed a hot guy, blonde, with shoulders to die for. He was well dressed and smiled as a text came through his phone. I think we all melted a bit at him smile, but then we groaned. If at all possible an even hotter man joined him at his table. When he leaned over to peck his cheek we realized we were out of luck.

For the next twenty minutes or so, Tara and Chelsea pointed out various different guys but I just couldn’t seem to get into it. “What’s wrong?” Tara questioned me.

“I just can’t seem to get interested. Every time I look at a guy, I just think what’s the point? He’s just going to hurt me like Peter.” I was disgusted with myself. I wanted to be happy again, and deep inside I know that us breaking up wasn’t the end of the world. He was never my soul mate, and from time to time I questioned if I was just being with someone for the sake of it. Even still, no one wants to get dumped.

“Honestly Al,” Tara said, “you need to forget about his ass and have some fun. We never told you this, because well, we didn’t know how….”. Tara looked at Chelsea and then continued. “You haven’t been yourself for a while now. I know you think you loved Peter once but he truly wasn’t that great of a guy. Some of the crap he pulled was bullshit. In fact, you should have been the one dumping his ass. Mark my words, no one else is going to put up with him and it won’t be long before he comes crawling back. Be happy you don’t need to be around that douchebag anymore!”

I just looked at my best friends with my mouth hanging open. I think both of them were waiting for me to explode and accuse them of not supporting me. Instead though, I started to laugh. The girls looked at each other, and then me, and then they started to laugh as well.

Chelsea pulled her chair closer to mine and hugged me, kissing me on the forehead. Tara, not wanting to be left out ran over and hugged me from behind. Only it didn’t work so well because she was so short. Instead she lifted up our arms and inserted herself into the middle of our hug. Then she looked at us and roared “MEOW!!!”

A long time ago, one of our guy friends, Tyler noticed our initials spelled out C-A-T while we were out bowling one night. Ever since then whenever something particularly funny or stressful happens one of us will shout out “MEOW!!” just as a reminder we are always in this together. 

We quickly snapped a few selfies and group pics with our cat faces and posted them to Facebook and Instagram. It didn’t take long before the comments started rolling in. I couldn’t help notice how a lot of attention was directed my way and how good it was to see me smile again. I quickly changed my screen name to ALLYCAT and posted #single and ready to mingle, MEOWWWW!!

Just as we were about to order more drinks, our waitress showed up with a bottle of champagne and three glasses. “Compliments of the ridiculously hot man at the bar! And let me just say between us, he smells as good as he looks ladies.” She set the bottle on the table before we had a chance to reply. There was also a note.

As I went to glace at the bar, Chelsea hissed “Play it cool Alya!”. I ducked my head back down and Tara opened the note. It read:

“It looks like you lovely ladies were celebrating. Hope you don’t mind but I took the liberty of sending this over to help. PS – shoes that draw attention to the beautiful woman wearing them is sexy – Brandon”

“OMG!” Chelsea commented. “That line is so cheesy! Besides us women can wear any shoes because we like them, not because we need to be noticed!” I forgot to mention but sometimes Chelsea goes a bit defensive when she is hit on. She’s so beautiful but unfortunately people treat her like an object and forget she’s got a real brain in her head.

“So should we send it back?” I questioned.

“No!!!!” both Tara and Chelsea yelled. Ok, so I was clearly confused. I looked at them in question.

“Alya, he may be an ass but he is fine.”  Tara claimed (we had snuck a peak as discreetly as we could). “You need to move on and learn to flirt again. This guy is the perfect chance”.

I started to protest but they were having none of it. “Look Alya, you look fantastic tonight. You are young, confident and sexy. Ok, maybe not confident yet, but you will be. Go on. March yourself right over there and thank him.”

I grumbled but they were right, and more importantly, the few drinks I had were kicking in. I slowly stood up and tried to stall. Instead Tara gave me a friendly shove (ha, some friend) and sent me in Brandon’s direction. Unfortunately for me, he chose that moment to look at me so he knew I was coming his way. No backing out now.

Slowly, I made my way over to him. It may have seemed like I was trying to be sexy or seductive, but in reality I was just trying to keep my legs from giving out. I finally made my way over to him. I went to introduce myself and say thank you for the champagne. Somehow though, in some twisted, fuck up act of fate, instead I grabbed his upper arm and blurted out, “I’m single!”

At first, Brandon just looked at me. Then his face broke out in a cocky grin and he stated “Well that’s good news!”

I became super embarrassed and started to blush. “I…I…mean…what I meant was…I’m not in a relationship. I mean my ex dumped me. I’m singling…I mean ready to mingle and single.” Seriously why couldn’t I just shut the hell up? I was like a Youtube video that was buffering and just blurting out random words. Two girls who were beside us at the bar were trying, very unsuccessfully I might add, not to laugh.

Finally I took a deep breath and tried again. I bit my lip and looked at Brandon. “What I meant to say, before my brain stopped working was that you are right. We were celebrating. We are celebrating the fact that I am single. Mingling was not in my plans. Well it was, but not in that way!” Oh God! I started rambling again. I could feel the colour of my skin changing. No need to worry about the pastiness because now I was bright red. 

“Well then”, Brandon interrupted my impromptu spaz session as he stood up and then leaned forward to shake my hand. “My name is Brandon, it’s nice to meet you.” I looked up at his profile and realized just how tall he was. Easily 6’3 with dark hair that was just so perfectly falling onto his forehead. Even though he was wearing a suit, it was easy to see his muscular body underneath. But the real clincher was the pair of eyes that were staring back at me. He had those bedroom eyes that always seem to be undressing you even while having a simple conversation. Although, those eyes were now looking at me questioningly.  Suddenly I realized he was waiting for something, and the light bulb went off.

“Oh..I’m Alya!” I finally responded. Honestly, I just wanted there to be an earthquake, a flood, hell even a good bar brawl, anything to distract from just how bad this was going. Unless I can find a boyfriend who’s a mime, I may be single for quite some time.

“Well, Alya” Brandon began, “how about you give me your number so I can call you sometime. Perhaps, anther time when you aren’t so flustered”. I heard the girls behind them and knew there was no coming back from this disaster. 

“Honestly Brandon, I’m flattered but I’m not ready to date right now. Even though we are celebrating, I need more time.” Tara and Chelsea were going to kill me.

“How about you take my number anyways and call me when you are ready?” Brandon reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a business card and handed it to me. Even though I knew I would never call him, I took the card anyways.

I turned around to head back to my friends when suddenly something caught my eye. Peter was heading my way and he looked like he wanted to talk. What the hell was he doing here? We specifically picked this bar because no one we knew came here. Especially not Peter nor his friends. I felt like I was trapped. I wasn’t ready to deal with his. I did the only thing I could think of.

I turned back to Brandon who was sitting at the bar and said, “I think I’m ready now!" I slid between his legs, wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to me for a kiss. Giving it everything I had, I pushed my tongue into his mouth and felt him kiss me back. He pulled me in closer and kissed me deeper.